Microsoft hires social network wonk, lets her keep her Mac

The 2.0 crowd's favorite social media academic, Danah Boyd — she types it as "danah boyd" because it looks prettier — is going over to Microsoft's newest research team in Boston (read: Harvard and MIT.) She's already done research at both Yahoo and Google, so the move makes sense. Even though Boyd once likened Microsoft to Germany:

They did some pretty evil things a while back but you don't remember the details, you just know that you really hate them.

Boyd, who links to that old line in her 1,700-word announcement of her new gig with Microsoft, seems preemptively defensive about her new employer. But it's charmingly honest, like Microsoft's other notorious Web celeb hire, Robert Scoble, who kept up his superprolific rep by being first to congratulate her. (Photo by Joi Ito)